Cellular telephones and wireless headsets have rapidly become enjoyable and useful commodities utilized by a large percentage of the population. Since a purpose of these devices is to allow people to communicate clearly with one another in different environments, there is a need to create devices which produce a clear and understandable signal of the user's voice. More particularly, there is a need to create devices which can cancel outside noise and which can allow substantially only the user's voice to be heard by a second party. As used herein, the term “user” refers to a person who is using a cellular telephone and/or wireless headset and “second party” or “second parties” refer to persons with whom the user is communicating via the cellular telephone and/or wireless headset.
If a user is operating a wireless headset, the need for noise cancellation can become even more apparent than if the user were only using a cellular telephone. For example, wireless headsets and cellular telephones typically employ omni-directional microphones which pick up audio signals received from every direction. Since a wireless headset can be farther from a user's mouth than a cellular telephone, the probability of the wireless headset picking up ambient noise (i.e., any sounds other than the user's voice) can be increased in comparison to a cellular telephone, which is typically located closer to the user's mouth. Thus, there is a need for a wireless headset that, even though the wireless headset may be located relatively far from the user's mouth, can substantially “hear” or process only the user's voice.
Wireless headsets can have a relatively short battery life, especially if a noise cancellation feature were to be added to the wireless headset, generating increased power supply needs. Although one solution could be to simply use a larger battery in the wireless headset, this solution could result in a bulky device which is uncomfortable and bothersome to the user. Thus, as there is a need for devices that improve power management and can operate for longer periods of time while using the same size battery.
Accordingly, systems and methods are needed for improving the noise cancellation and power management abilities of a wireless headset.